with the caveat that I get to know what I know now; otherwise I'll be just as dumb as I was the first time around, and you can leave current brain power out of it, thank you very much! I met 2 of my young 'padawans' early this morning, before Runner's Boot Camp and ran the course of the Retro Run. These 2 ladies are really excited about their progress, as I am I. When ever possible I try to get my 'peeps' to run a course to familiarize themselves with it so they can concentrate on having fun. I was thinking as we ran how I didn't used to think a whole lot about the heat, or the cold, or the elements (except lightning), I just went and ran. Did my schedule call for a 4 miler or 7 miler, okay...go run! Now I think I think too much...I believe it has a lot to do with my childhood; my parents moved a lot when I was a child, but I always found them. (Rodney Dangerfield...I miss him). Seriously I think I'm going to try to revert to my old simple self and just go run. Doesn't mean I won't look at the temperature to know how to dress, but once I know, I'll just go! It takes me a while to catch on; I was in the gym on Highland putting someone through their 'paces' the other day and one of my graduates ran by. She's had open heart surgery, is on the 'north side' of 50 and was out running kind of late in the morning. It dawned on me, I used to be like that! (excluding the open heart surgery) - It was pretty cool to be inspired by one of my own, so to speak. When I see Trudi I have to give her big ups! I was out walking with one of my other ladies (she's building up to a run) one afternoon and saw the Indomitable Nicole out doing intervals - 5:00 in the afternoon! Hot? Yeah, but it's what she planned to do and she was doing it. That's just the way it was. My kids are showing me the way! The wheels started turning and I realized it was just 'me'. It's basically the same weather in Alabama every summer...hot or hotter with a dash of humidity tossed in. Guess what? It'll be cold again this winter...whaddaya gonna do? Me, I'm gonna fuggedaboudit! I'm gonna just go run, and let my fat cells cry or as David B put it his fat cells were having "an emotional breakdown of epic proportion today!" As Mark Twain said, "Why does everyone complain about the weather, you can't do anything about it." So true. It'll be hard, bad habits are harder to break than good habits are to start, but start I will. The bad habit is whining/complaining about the weather - the good habit will be - just run. The weather will be what it will be and I'll run what I need to run. On the GREAT days I'll shout Hallelujah! The rest of the days I'll just run and be glad I can. Back to a simpler 'Dan'; ever notice how no one says, "Don't touch that dial!" No more dials, (radio, television, telephones all had 'dials'), well no more of that. I'll do what you have to do, quietly...no fuss. It'll be like brushing my teeth, I won't think about it, I'll just do it - same with running. Time to run 'young' again.......